I'm not dead yet — promise

It has been a long time since I updated this, so wow if you’re still hanging around. Actually, who are you and why are you hanging around? Should I be worried? Weirdo. Just kidding. I do appreciate it, and I do occasionally continue to receive emails from new readers who have just discovered my books. That is very humbling. Thank you if you've actually taken the time to write me. So, to answer a question I always receive when the aforementioned emails arrive in my inbox: no, I am not dead (although let's all admit it would be pretty amazing if this was posted by me and I was dead), and yes, I am still writing, although not in the capacity you might be hoping for.

OK, let’s backtrack for a second, and feel free to skip ahead three paragraphs if you only want to know about my writing projects in the works. I forgive you for not being overly interested in my personal problems and excuses.

I had hoped 2019 would be a better year for me, and in some ways it has been – I got new day job with higher pay and way less stress, y’all! — and in other ways it hasn’t been. Since I started that new day job, I have been dealing with some pain-in-the-hiney health issues. I might be fired soon because of how many sick days I have been using up. For about the last three or four months, I have been having pain on the right side of my neck. It feels kind of lumpy and blah. When it flares up, I sometimes run a fever and have nausea, too. I think the first time I mentioned it to a doctor, I got a “oh, it’s nothing” response, was put on antibiotics for sinus infection, and got better for about two weeks before it flared back up again. I mentioned it to another doctor, who declared my thyroid was visible and that he felt a knot where it was. I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure the thyroid is on the front of your neck. My pain/problems are on the right side, but I’ve been told that’s my lymph nodes, which are probably tender because there’s something going on with my thyroid. Flash forward through a few more doctor visits, an ultrasound on my thyroid, an ER visit, etc. The ultrasound confirmed I had an abnormally enlarged thyroid, and my labwork shows ridiculously high thyroid antibodies. Cancer? That was my first thought, but there were no nodules present, so no doctor I've seen thinks a biopsy is necessary.

My typical day now goes something like this: Wake up at 5 a.m. with night sweats, a fever, nausea, and pains in my neck. I take over-the-counter meds to alleviate those symptoms, and on the best days, manage to get to work about 30 minutes late. On a bad day, the symptoms linger or get worse, and I am a couple of hours late or have to call in sick. Whether I am at work or not, I then experience extreme fatigue, weakness, and headaches for the rest of the day, oftentimes dozing off at work, almost dozing off driving home, and collapsing into an exhausted pile of limbs as soon as I get inside my house. My symptoms have not improved despite being on thyroid medicine, and I decided, you know what? There is something seriously wrong with me, and I don’t think my thyroid is the cause. The last specialist I saw agreed with me. "Congratulations," he said, with a huge smile on his handsome face. "You have Hashimoto's disease. It's a very common autoimmune disorder related to your thyroid. There's no cure but we can treat it. That's beside the point. Your thyroid isn't causing all of these symptoms." His diagnosis? Acid reflux, even after he examined me and declared I had zero visible symptoms of acid reflux disease. "I think you have silent acid reflux disease," he amended. Um, what? That's a thing? I reckon so. He put me on meds for it, and guess what? Still over here being sick every day. Not getting much better. I literally have to force myself out of bed most days, and if I accomplish anything, it's out of sheer determination.

I will admit. I decided to include these details in this blog in the desperate hope some poor soul (preferably with a doctor's degree) will read it and tell me what's wrong with me — and how to fix it. Straight up being serious here. I've done a lot of research on Hashimoto's and am trying to adjust my diet to see if that helps at all. Wish me luck. Me + diets have always equaled bawahahahaha.

Back to my writing.

I have been taking screenwriting classes and have written a TV pilot based on ... well, I can't tell you yet. It's legit being shopped around! But I will say this — it's not related to my books. But if you love cats, I think you will like it. That's assuming anything happens with it, and with my luck, I'm not holding my breath.

As far as my books are concerned, why, yes, I am still writing another book in my psychic detectives series. I wrote a standalone, completely new story not related to that series AT ALL that I have decided makes a lousy book — but I might write a movie out of it and see what happens. Or I might send it to a publisher. I'm still trying to decide. But overall, I am not getting much writing done because I am too exhausted to write whenever I have any free time.

So there it is. My update. Thanks again for hanging in there. I hope to have more news soon.